Audit Shows Profit At Sewage Plant

The sewage treatment plant serving Delray Beach and Boynton Beach earned more money than it spent last year, a sharp reversal from the previous year`s record deficit, officials said Monday.

``It`s basically a more efficient operation,`` said David Sloan, the plant`s executive director.

The audit report showing the $3,642 surplus for 1983-84 was approved without comment by members of the South Central Regional Wastewater Treatment and Disposal Board. The board is composed of city council members from the two cities the plant serves.

The plant, which this year has a $1.7 million budget, lost $364,492 during the 1982-83 year, the biggest deficit in the plant`s five-year history.

Sloan credited last year`s surplus to better use of treatment equipment and more accurate cost projections. The report showed the plant trimmed $200,000 from the cost of liquid waste disposal -- an item which contributed about two- thirds of the previous year`s deficit.

``That`s a big savings,`` Sloan said.

The surplus will be shared by Boynton Beach and Delray Beach. Though the money will be returned to utility funds in the two cities, the savings will be little to customers, Sloan said.

``By the time you divide it up, you come up with maybe one-tenth of 1 percent savings. That`s nothing,`` he said.